Gilmore Building Co., teaming with Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty (real estate sales), Weston Nurseries of Hopkinton, MA (landscaping), and Phillips Design of Concord MA (interior design) offered the Sell by Design Contest for Boston Metrowest homeowners seeking to sell their homes in the next 12 months.
So what's going on at this point?
On April 30, the Contest co-sponsors issued the following news release.
Natick Family Wins a $50,000 Home Face-Lift
Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty, in conjunction with Weston Nurseries of Hopkinton, Gilmore Building Company of Grafton and Philips Design of Concord, have announced today that the Doucette family of Hopewell Farm Road in South Natick, Massachusetts are the grand prize winners of the Sell By Design Contest. The Doucette's South Natick home will receive a custom home face-lift valued at up to $50,000 provided by the participating sponsors before being listed for sale by Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty.
Hopkinton, MA (April 30, 2010) -- The Doucette family of South Natick, Massachusetts has been selected as the grand prize winner of the Boston Metrowest, MA "Sell By Design Contest." The Doucette's home was among hundreds of homeowners in eighteen select Metrowest Massachusetts towns that submitted essays in the hopes of getting the professional design team to choose their home to beautify with a $50,000 face-lift before listing it for sale this spring.
"We are so excited to be named the winner of this contest," says Margie Doucette. "We have a nice home in a wonderful neighborhood, it's just a little tired and needs some TLC to get it ready for the market."
"I'm so happy for the Doucettes," says Michele Phaneuf, Realtor, who will be co-listing this home with Contest Coordinator Muneeza Nasrullah of Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty once the renovations are complete. "This will demonstrate the importance of getting your home in market-ready condition before listing it for sale."
Over the next six to eight weeks, the Doucette's South Natick home will receive landscape improvements, minor exterior alterations and interior cosmetic updates provided by the professional team of designers including Weston Nurseries of Hopkinton, MA, Gilmore Building Company of Grafton, MA and Philips Design of Concord, MA. Once completed, the renovated home will be listed for sale by Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty of Hopkinton, MA.
"We've been telling our customers for years that landscaping improvements provide a fantastic ROI for the value of your home," says Peter Mezitt, President of Weston Nurseries. "This project is the first tangible example I know of in our industry that will provide the proof."
"It's a wonderful opportunity," explains James Lipcon of Philips Design. "The Doucettes are going to get a fantastic redesign project that will surely increase the value of their home and make it more appealing to buyers."
"Through the good fortune of the Doucettes, says Eric Gilmore, President of Gilmore Building Co., everyone will all have a great opportunity to observe the face-lift remodeling process and the benefits that can be realized by custom designing to enhance a home's attractiveness before the selling process begins."
"In today's market, first impressions and curb appeal are more important than ever," says Erika Paul, President and Broker-Owner of Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty. "The Sell By Design Contest will not only greatly benefit the Doucettes, but also will demonstrate how crucial it is to get your home in the best shape possible before listing it for sale."
Video progress of the project can be viewed online at http://www.sellbydesigncontest.com/. Watch for articles to be carried by news outlets featuring the progress of the face-lift construction and follow the progress on Facebook.
Additional sponsors of the Sell By Design Contest include: The Law Offices of Irfan Nasrullah, First Eastern Mortgage Corporation, Koopman Lumber and Hardware, Flanagan Interior Finish, Inc., Kelly's Property Services, LLC, Lorusso Stone and Omni Stone Works, Inc.
Gilmore Building Co. is teaming with Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty (real estate sales), Weston Nurseries of Hopkinton, MA (landscaping), and Phillips Design of Concord MA (interior design) to offer a contest - the Sell by Design Contest - for homeowners seeking to sell their homes in the next 12 months.
The Sell-by-Design Contest will provide the grand prize winner a "facelift" for their home having a value of up to $50,000. The purpose of the facelift is to make the home more marketable before the real estate sales process begins. It will be a clear example of how the concept will help homeowners achieve their home selling goals.
So what's going on at this point?
The time to register / enter the contest has just expired. The contest organizers are now in the process of determining the winner of the contest. It is expected that the results will be announced on April 26, 2010.
Watch for articles to be carried by news outlets featuring the progress of the facelift construction and follow on Facebook.
As the Builder on the team, the construction of the palette of home improvements making up the facelift will be coordinated by Gilmore Building Co., Inc. The interior and exterior home improvements will be custom designed by all the team members.
Gilmore Building Co. www.gilmorebuildingco.com believes the Sell by Design contest is presenting a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that a higher selling price and shorter sales cycle can be realized by custom designing with a team approach to enhance a home's attractiveness before the selling process begins. Gilmore Building Co. is excited about participating in this event and teaming with the talented contest sponsor companies to showcase what is possible.
Visit http://www.sellbydesigncontest.com/ for contest details.
Meet the contest sponsors / partners on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGwPNtIfxPw
Gilmore Building Co. is teaming with Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty, Weston Nurseries of Hopkinton, MA, and Phillips Design of Concord MA to offer a contest for homeowners seeking to sell their homes in the next 12 months. The Sell-by-Design Contest provides the grand prize winner a palette of custom designed home improvements having a value of up to $50,000. The purpose of the improvements is to produce a "facelift" that makes the contest winner's home more marketable.
Meet the contest sponsors / partners on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGwPNtIfxPw
The contest is open to single-family homeowners whose homes are located in the Central MA towns of: Ashland, Dover, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Marlborough, Medfield, Medway, Milford, Natick, Northborough, Sherborn, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Upton and Westborough
Applicants must enter the contest not later than March 31, 2010 by visiting the contest web site and submitting a 100-word essay on why their homes would most benefit from a facelift. Once the facelift work is complete, the home would be listed for sale by Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty.
Five runners-up will also win flip video cameras and consultation packages from the four participating companies.
Gilmore Building Co. believes the Sell by Design contest presents a perfect opportunity to demonstrate to homeowners that a higher selling price and shorter sales cycle can be realized by enhancing a home's attractiveness before the selling process begins. We chose to participate in this event because we believe strongly in this concept and because, teaming with the talented contest sponsor companies to showcase what is possible, is exciting.
Visit http://www.sellbydesigncontest.com/ for contest details.
A house with "good bones" built in the last few decades can be remodeled to create a home with the warmth and character of the homes that lined the Main Streets of New England in the early 18th and 19th centuries. As example, by changing the exterior appearance, a house can be transformed into an elegant home adorned with Greek Revival style elements. The Greek Revival style was popular in the early 1800's.
The extent to which an exterior transformation is taken can range from historically inspired by the architecture of a period to an actual reproduction of a particular early New England home. In the Greek Revival example above, the transformation to a new but old looking home might be accomplished by simply decorating the exterior of a house with authentic reproduction trim and installing entry ways framed with columns supporting a frieze and cornice.
Remodeling in this form is consistent with the architectural design concept of the new old home. Under the new old home concept the "old" period style home is reproduced using "new" trim and details that are historically accurate. Construction is done with innovative building techniques and the latest low maintenance building materials. Thus a home that appears to be 200 years old can actually achieve today's low maintenance and energy efficiency standards.
For the homeowner, there are monetary advantages that can be derived from the simple exterior facelift that transforms a home. First, a high return on investment can generally be expected since it would fall into that smaller to midrange project category that the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University says recovers a higher percentage of its cost*. Additionally, a New England traditional architecture home generally commands a higher selling price and maintains its price advantage over time because the architectural styling is timeless and the feeling the warmth inspired is very appealing.
Few would drive quickly through a quaint old New England village passing the stately homes on Main Street without taking a moment. Most people are compelled to slow down and comment on how beautiful the homes are. Is there anyone who doesn't love Main street in Woodstock Vt?
A word or two of caution is required. For an architect and a skilled residential general contractor with a love and eye for New England historical architecture and classic design principles, transforming a house into a home with a soul can be a relatively straight forward task. However, if these traits are not a special focus for the builder and architect, the results can be very disappointing.
It is also advisable to use the design build approach for a transformation project. The approach is highly appropriate because the New England historical architecture focused builder and architect work together from the very beginning of the project to identify the transformation elements that will achieve the look desired within the homeowner's budget.
* Home Builders and Remodelers of Cape Cod, Resource Directory 2009.
The Residential Design and Construction convention and trade show was held April 1st through the 2nd in Boston at the Seaport World Trade Center.
The event focused on New England's residential design and construction industry. The RDC 2009 is intended for everyone in the residential-design and construction community including residence related consumers, architects, residential designers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, homebuilders, developers, subcontractors, specialty contractors, remodelers, renovators, custom builders, planners, and young professionals. This is a great annual event that allows attendees to see the latest residential products in one place, absorb conference topics, learn about cutting edge technologies especially in energy conservation and green building practices, earn continuing education credits and network.
The event was sponsored by many industry associations including the Boston Society of Architects, NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry, NAHB (National Association of Home Builders), the BSA Women in Design Work and many others.
Gilmore Building Co., Inc. in conjunction with Connor Homes of Middlebury, VT participated in the RDC providing a booth in the exhibit hall that was focused on educating its visitors about the new old home architectural concept and building new old homes using the panelized, kit form construction approach. 
The new old home is a shared focus for Gilmore Building Co. and Connor Homes. The new old home is a reproduction of the New England traditional architectural style home. The home can be either an exact reproduction or a combination of exact reproduction and historic motivation. In both cases however, the exterior is crafted with elements like trim that have historically accurate shape and classic architectural dimensions. The interior design can be an exact reproduction or simply historically motivated as well. These new old homes look like they were built generations ago.
Connor Homes of Middlebury, VT has since the 60's been in the residential building business building well-crafted Colonial Homes. In recent years, its experience in historical architectural design has been combined with a state of the art manufacturing process to provide highly detailed and historically accurate homes in kit form.
Gilmore Building Co., Inc. is a highly respected residential design and build construction company serving greater Boston. Because of its skill as a builder and based on its specialty in creating the new old home, Gilmore Building Co. collaborates with Connor Homes to assemble / build the Connor Home once the elements are delivered on-site.
Judging by the quantity of visitors and the depth of their questions, the new old home concept was well received. Please also visit Connor Homes at www.connorbuilding.com
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